WHO WE ARE

Lee Martin is the Director and founder of Gag Reflex (he also runs marathons but doesn’t like to talk about them).

Having started his career in live comedy at Manchester’s Frog and Bucket and XS Malarkey Comedy Clubs, he started the agency in conjunction with the Frog and Bucket, before going solo in 2010. 

The agency started with a focus on Northern comic talent but rapidly evolved, expanding into other areas of the arts and entertainment like Magic and Theatre, and its talent pool grew as it started to work with international acts. 

The company started to produce and promote shows first at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe, and has since evolved from a few 50 seat rooms at fringe festivals to large scale UK and USA tours, West End seasons, international festivals and Las Vegas residencies. 

An “alpha geek” Lee’s interests include running marathons, old tech, running marathons, bad nu-metal and running marathons.

Lee is proud to have evolved the reach of Gag Reflex from the NW circuit to global festivals, television, radio and beyond. He believes in an artist first approach to management and show creation. A philosophy which permeates the whole agency. 

Ollie Downton is Head of all things creative and production. He can usually be found wearing a hat having heated arguments with inanimate objects. He started working as Technical Director for Tape Face, where he oversaw a West End Run, worldwide tours and the establishment of a residency in Las Vegas. Lee and Ollie immediately hit it off over their excellent taste in music and love of F1. In 2019 Ollie started full time and hasn’t looked back since except when crossing the finish line of a marathon ahead of Lee. His career highlight is having his eyebrows pencilled in by Eddie Izzard on his birthday.

Beth Mullins affectionately known as Trev (don’t ask) has worked in various roles across the globe including Entertainment Co-ordinator in Lapland, teacher in Cambodia and community worker in Brazil. Beth decided that all these wonderful places just weren’t for her and what she really wanted was North Manchester! As such she found her way to us at Gag and we couldn’t be happier. Beth looks after our National and International festivals including the monster project that is our Ed Fringe season. If you have any dogs, pictures of dogs, stories about dogs or just want to chat about dogs, then Beth is your gal.

Kev Rook is the founder of Nodding Dog Comedy. Partnering with Gag Reflex after a meeting over fish and chips the brand has grown and is a staple of the comedy scene in the North West and beyond. Kev has an incredible skill for finding new and exciting opportunities to bring the comedy club vibe to spaces not usually known for live entertainment. He is also a master of spotting up and coming talent and runs the West Didsbury new act competition. Kev firmly believes that all technical issues can be solved with hope and Gaffa tape much to Ollie’s dissatisfaction!

Georgi Mckie (G to those in the know) is the Live Agent at Gag Reflex. Georgi can often be found smashing out reps in the gym in her spare time and is partial to a wine on the weekend. Georgi books live gigs for our acts and also programs live events and mixed bill performances. Before joining Gag Reflex, she was a performer touring the country and fell in love with comedic performing and can still occasionally be seen live. As the only ‘Gen Z-er’ in the team G provides a link to the youth that is now a distant memory for the rest of us!

Tori Erskine is the Promoter at Gag Reflex, working closely with Director Lee, she runs our Touring department. Before joining the team she worked as a freelance writer and Marketing Assistant at Brio Entertainment venues in Cheshire. This is where she first met Gag Reflex, promoting shows including Lost Voice Guy and Ben Hart. Her main role though, is heading up team PopMaster daily at 10:30. Tori prides herself in her knowledge of 2000s pop music, is an avid gig-goer (basically she’s seen Westlife loads) and is responsible for keeping the office stocked up on Tayto crisps when she returns to her homeland of Ireland.

Hannah Ralph joined the Gag Reflex team at the end of 2022 and is an Agent focusing on our Corporate bookings. Hannah has worked in Talent Management for 11 years, primarily in Voiceover, booking Voiceover Artists for live announcements, for video games, TV commercials and also for animation. You can rarely go to a major supermarket without Hannah naming the voice behind the self-service checkouts!

Joe Hollingworth has recently joined the team as Production Assistant/Chief of Telling Ollie Everything Is Going To Be Ok. He has an extensive history of running shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which he cannot escape; once he was an audience member for a show which didn’t start, so he put on the missing show which accidentally went on a sell-out run for the whole month. If you see Joe without a beanie, a woolly jumper, or enough coffee to kill a horse, ask him if he’s alright.